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RBI holds interest rates; slashes SLR by 0.50% to boost lending

05 Aug 2014 Evaluate

Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its third bi-monthly monetary policy review, delivered on expected lines and kept the policy repo rate unchanged under liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) at 8.0%, which consequently led to reverse repo rate remaining unchanged at 7% and marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate untouched at 9.0%.

Besides, the central bank, much in line with expectations, reduced the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) of scheduled commercial banks by 50 basis points from 22.5% to 22.0% of their NDTL with effect from the fortnight beginning August 9, 2014 and decided to continue to provide liquidity under overnight repos at 0.25% of bank-wise NDTL and liquidity under 7-day and 14-day term repos of up to 0.75% of NDTL of the banking system.

In addition, RBI in order to enable banks' greater participation in financial markets brought down the Held to Maturity (HTM) ceiling to 24% of NDTL with effect from the fortnight beginning August 9, 2014 from than 24.5% of their NDTL as on the last Friday.

On the inflation front, though RBI acknowledged the moderation in CPI headline inflation for two consecutive months, despite the seasonal firming up of prices of fruits and vegetables since March mainly on account of both base effects and the steady deceleration in CPI inflation excluding food and fuel, it sounded a word of caution as it underscored that it would continue to monitor inflation developments closely and would remain committed to the disinflationary path of taking CPI inflation to 8% by January 2015 and 6% by January 2016. Besides, it also flagged an upside risk target of 6% by January 2016, warranting a heightened state of policy preparedness to contain these risks if these materialized.

However, RBI stroke a neutral stance on growth front as it highlighted in policy documents that the GDP growth target of 5.5% within a likely range of 5 to 6% that was set out in the April projection for 2014-15 could be sustained, if the recent pick-up in industrial activity was sustained in an environment conducive to the revival of investment and unlocking of stalled projects, with ongoing fiscal consolidation releasing resources for private enterprise, external demand picking up and international crude prices stabilizing. However, it highlighted on the flip side that if the risk relating to the global recovery, monsoon and geo-political tensions intensify, the balance of risks could tilt to the downside.

Overall RBI’s third bi-monthly monetary policy turned out to be disappointing, with RBI introducing no special measures for managing liquidity, slashing HTM ceiling and striking a hawkish tone on inflation front by projecting an upside risk to 2016 inflation target of ‘6%’. Delivering on expected lines, RBI retained the policy rate, making it the fourth consecutive time that Governor Raghuram Rajan kept interest rates unchanged. So far, Rajan raised interest rates three times since he took office in September 2013, even as economic growth slowed to decade-low rates as it set the target of bringing down consumer price inflation to 8% by the end of the fiscal, and to 6% by the next fiscal.

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